Van der Merwe was speaking at the closing of a three-day workshop on Friday, held to draft a working document to guide South Africa’s participation in advancing Nepad’s programmes.
Van der Merwe pointed out that there was a skewed accumulation of wealth and resources between men and women in the world, further calling for the global community to change this phenomenon.
“For instance, we know that 70% of the world’s poor are women and therefore the fight against poverty must take into account the feminisation of this poverty.
“I hope that our new national strategy is going to take these inequalities into account.”
The Deputy Minister further thanked stakeholders involved in the workshop for having laid down a framework that outlined the role the country could play in the advancement of the Nepad development objectives.
Africa Union leaders formed Nepad four years ago in an attempt to expedite socio-economic development on the continent.
Having closely followed deliberations at the workshop herself, Van der Merwe noted they were “vibrant and stimulating”, saying the discussions would “definitely yield positive and practical outcomes”.
In addition, she said she was humbled by the load of work the workshop had done, despite the difficulty they faced at the beginning caused mainly by the “the divergent roles and responsibilities of the various sectors”.
“Your work has provided a solid base for defining the specifics roles we have achieved, that we expect each stakeholder to play, such as national, provincial and local government, civil society, business and labour,” she said.
Van der Merwe quoted President Thabo Mbeki extensively in her speech, saying the President had been instrumental in the formation of Nepad.
She said she was quoting from Mbeki’s previous speeches on Nepad, “because I think we also need to ask ourselves as South Africans whether we have been true to this vision and whether indeed we are focusing our attention to use both our human and natural resources to develop our country and our continent”.
The main aim of the workshop was to hone and broaden the work already done at the first workshop held in Port Elizabeth recently by government parastatals to draft the National Implementation Strategy for South Africa (Nissa).
Now that the new strategy is targeted at the country’s contribution to Nepad projects and the fact that it includes other stakeholders apart from government, the new name changed to Nissa.
The stakeholders emerged from this workshop optimistic that they would put together a framework document soon, saying they expected it to have been presented for approval by relevant authorities by the end of this year.
The draft document, which is almost finalised, should be presented to Cabinet soon for consideration, according to Van der Merwe.
It outlines the roles government, business, labour and civil society are expected to play in addressing challenges facing Nepad programmes within the country and the continent “Following on from this workshop, we will need to ensure sector specific engagement on the strategy – for example, with labour, as we prepare a final draft that goes to Cabinet,” she said. – BuaNews
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